


lumière over me

by sarcasticfluentry



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Dad!Artemi, Kid Fic, M/M, Slow Burn, Teacher!Luc, at least relative to all of my other fics lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-05-02 07:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14539791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasticfluentry/pseuds/sarcasticfluentry
Summary: “Okay, so. Today was my first day doing the after-school thing, right? And part of the job is to stay until all the kids are picked up - well, obviously. So, the other teacher had to leave early, so it was just me staying until the end, and the last girl to get picked up-”“I thought this was a boy story,” Sonny interrupts.“Itis,”Luc says. “It’s about herdad.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Many thanks to all of you who have sent me messages on tumblr about this fic idea, which came from a very creative and generous anonymous user who's letting me run with it. Bless up.
> 
> There's no sex in the first chapter and probably won't be for a couple chapters, but you KNOW there's gonna be sex eventually (have I ever written a non-explicit fic?) so that's why the fic isn't rated at this time.
> 
> I don't know what it is about these two that inspires me to write so much soft sweet fic, but it's certainly gotten me over my writer's block so I'm just gonna keep rolling with it. Come find me on [tumblr](http://povverbottoms.tumblr.com) and scream about french bread with me!
> 
> Title is from "Tenerife Sea" by Ed Sheeran.

“Hey, man, thanks again for doing this,” Cam says as he and Pierre-Luc walk down the hallway.

“It’s no problem,” Luc says, for probably the fifth time. “I get to switch from mornings to afternoons ‘cause of this, I’m not complaining. Plus Nat deserves it.”

Cam grins and runs a hand through his hair, his face pink. Today is the first day of his wife’s maternity leave, and apparently it’s been a tough enough third trimester that she’s already on bed rest, so Cam’s left to show Luc the after-school ropes, or at least what Nat’s told him.

“So, Kelly should already be there, so she’ll be able to show you where stuff is. They get _one_ snack at four, so don’t let any of them trick you into thinking they get more. Colton did that to me when I was subbing once.”

Luc laughs. “Okay, one snack, got it.”

“Kelly might have, like, an activity planned, but that was usually Nat’s job, so I guess we’ll see what she wants you to do,” Cam says. “Also, Kelly always has to leave at five sharp because of her night class, so you’ll have to stay until all the kids get picked up.”

“Oh, okay.”

“It shouldn’t take too long. Nat says sometimes Ana’s dad gets here kind of late, but she says he’s so nice it’s hard to get mad at him.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard if he makes me late for practice,” Luc says. He’s mostly joking, but kind of not.

Cam laughs. “Oh yeah, I forgot the beer league was more important than a sad little Russian girl.”

Luc hits him. “At least I _go_ to practice. When was the last time you showed up?”

“Hey, I’m playing the pregnant wife card,” Cam says with a shit-eating grin. “Plus, do you _know_ how much energy third-graders have? I’m exhausted at the end of the day, man.”

“Ugh, whatever you say,” Luc says. “I know giving up when I hear it.”

“Fuck off,” Cam mutters under his breath.

Luc giggles. As they approach the small gym, the familiar sound of screaming children is almost soothing to Luc, who’s apparently still in what Cam calls the “honeymoon phase” of his job here.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Cam says, slapping Luc on the back. “Let me know if you run into any trouble, but otherwise the Atkinson household is ‘do not disturb’ for tonight, alright?”

“Alright,” Luc smiles. Cam might be trying to smirk, but he just looks too happy to be anything but beaming. “Say hi to Nat for me.”

“Will do,” Cam says over his shoulder.

When Luc pushes open the door to the gym, dozens of little heads whip around to stare at him. Only the youngest kids recognize him – he’s only been working with the preschool kids for the month he’s been here – but their faces light up and they all scream, _“Mr. Luc!”_ like they didn’t just see him thirty minutes ago.

“Hey, guys,” Luc smiles, crouching down to give a few of them high fives when they run up to him.

“Are you always here after school?” Jessica asks him, curious.

“No, he’s not,” Brian says.

“You’re right,” Luc tells Brian. “But do you guys remember when Mrs. Nat said she was going to have a baby?”

Jessica’s eyes get huge and round. “She has a baby?”

“No, not yet,” says Luc. He stands back up, but leans down and lets a few of them lead him over to the rest of the group. “But the doctors said she’s… uh, probably gonna be tired for the next couple weeks, so I’m going to be here until she gets back.”

“When my mommy… um, when my mommy had my brother in her belly… she was in bed for _years_ ,” Nia tells the group. The other kids gasp and Luc manages not to laugh.

“Is Mrs. Nat okay?” Brian asks Luc.

“Oh, Luc, you’re here,” Kelly says, sounding grateful. “Kids, this is Mr. Luc, he’s going to be our sub for a few weeks until Mrs. Nat has her baby.”

Luc doesn’t have as much experience with the older children – there are children in here as old as ten, but he’s only really gotten to know the three through five year olds. However, he seems to endear himself to some of the fourth and fifth graders when they rope him into a game of football and all clamor to be on his team.

After snack time, Kelly puts a Disney channel show on the television for kids who want to watch it, and some of Luc’s preschool kids pull him down to sit next to them.

“Luc,” Anastasia whispers to him, turning around to wave.

Luc smiles and waves back. She has these huge blue eyes that make her look either very earnest or like she’s constantly on the verge of tears. “Hi, Ana.”

“Luc,” Anastasia says again. She points to the television. “Магия.”

Luc looks up; it looks like it’s some kind of show about wizards, or a family of wizards, or something. One of them even has a pointy hat and a wand.

“Magic?” he tries.

Ana nods excitedly. “Магия.” Then she rattles off a stream of rapid-fire Russian that Luc has no hope of catching, looking excited as she climbs in his lap then turns back to the television.

It was only two weeks ago that one of the other preschool teachers was worried that Ana had a language-specific developmental delay, because she was painfully shy to the point where she would barely speak at all. Then one time she got so excited about a snack they were having that she spoke more in a minute than they’d gotten out of her in two weeks – it was just in Russian, not in English. Luc himself had grown up speaking two languages; Ana’s slow progress in one language but fast progress in the other was familiar to him, so it was pretty easy to dissuade Mrs. Jeffries from sending Ana for developmental evaluation.

English will come for her, Luc’s sure of it.

She seems to understand it pretty well, Luc thinks as he watches Ana watch the television. He’s really rooting for her to start stringing words together soon, though, so she can communicate better with the other kids in her class. (Also, to stop Mrs. Jeffries from breathing down her neck.)

After one episode of the show, parents start to trickle in to pick up their children. Luc has to gently scoot Ana back onto the floor so Kelly can introduce him to each parent that comes in.

“Oh, so _you’re_ Mr. Luc,” Brian’s mom says with a smile as she helps Brian into his coat. “My son talks about you all the time.”

Luc blushes. “Oh – uh – good things, I hope? Brian’s great.”

“Oh, yeah, he loves you,” Brian’s mom says. “Did you just start here in September?”

“Yeah, I just graduated from OSU in June.”

“Good man,” says Nia’s dad, also helping her with her coat. “You go to any games this year?”

Luc smiles. “Not yet, but I’m going to homecoming next weekend.”

“Nice!” Nia’s dad ays approvingly. “It’s gonna be a good one. Muck Fichigan, right?”

Luc snorts and agrees, waving goodbye to both kids and their parents as they make their way out.

“Daddy, what’s Muck Fichigan?” he hears Nia ask.

Luc and Kelly share a grin when Nia’s dad says, “It’s something you say when you want your sports team to win, sweetheart.”

Most of the kids have been picked up by the time Kelly leaves at five. Luc has to hastily scribble a sign that says “Kids in bathroom, back in 5, 5:10pm” when one of the second-graders says he _really_ has to go, meaning that Luc has to take the whole group down the hallway to the bathrooms, paired up and holding hands. No one has any accidents, though, and there’s only one mom waiting when he gets back.

He introduces himself and she smiles, thanks him for taking good care of her daughter – Emily – and then a couple of parents arrive at once, and Luc loses track of things for a little while as he helps make sure everyone has their backpacks and lunchbags.

Before he knows it, it’s just him and Anastasia left.

“Is your dad picking you up today?” he asks her, grabbing the small football the older kids were using earlier and rolling it gently over to her.

Ana nods, smiling. “Papa. Yes.”

Luc wonders if Ana’s mom ever comes to pick her up. Maybe _she’s_ never the late one, he thinks bitterly as he watches the minutes pass by every time he checks his phone.

He can’t be too upset, though – yes, he’s going to be late for hockey practice, but Ana’s one of his favorite kids. She sits right next to him during art time and breaks into the biggest smile when Luc tells her he likes her drawings; she always distributes Avengers dolls to the other kids during playtime and coaxes Luc into playing the villain they have to defeat, all with just a few words of English; _and,_ she barely ever has tantrums. Luc absolutely loves her.

“Want to play catch?” he asks her, gesturing to the football.

Ana shakes her head and pets the football like a cat. “He’s sleeping.”

“Oh, okay,” Luc says, widening his eyes and nodding.

Ana looks at him for a moment, in that sort of penetrating way preschoolers sometimes have, then smiles brightly and starts chattering in Russian. She seems content with his occasional nods and hums as a sign to keep talking; Luc helps her tuck the football underneath a blanket for his “nap” and then watches fondly as Ana rocks it like a baby.

At some point Ana stops talking and looks at him expectantly.

“I don’t know,” Luc says after a beat. “Is that, um, is that a good thing?”

Ana apparently finds this to be hilarious - she bursts into giggles and hands Luc the football, which he very carefully cradles in his arms while trying not to laugh.

Eventually he can’t help it, though, and he’s giggling along with her as she fusses with the blanket when the door to the gym opens. Luc almost feels disappointed, even though he theoretically should be glad that he’ll now be free to go to practice.

Then he looks up and does and honest-to-god double take, which he’ll definitely find time to be embarrassed about later. He’d been expecting Ana’s dad to be like most of the other dads that have come to pick their kids up from the after-school program - mid-30s, wearing a suit or a uniform, and not someone Luc’s attracted to even though he’s known he was gay since he was six years old.

Ana’s dad is none of those things.

There’s no way he’s older than 25 - he might even be younger than Luc - and he’s wearing an OSU sweatshirt. He’s also wearing light-wash ripped jeans, which are horrible, but Luc can definitely overlook that because, well, his face is startlingly pretty. It’s immediately apparent where Ana got her big, blue eyes from; they crinkle at the corners when he smiles at hearing Ana’s laugh.

“Nastya,” he says happily.

His voice is deeper than Luc would have guessed. Not that it matters or anything.

“Papa!” Ana squeals, scrambling up and running over.

Luc gets up too and wipes his suddenly-sweaty palms on his pants before making his way over. Up close he realizes he’s probably a little under a head taller than this guy, which, again, is something he’s going to have to process later. Ana’s dad smiles at him expectantly, his daughter now in his arms.

Right before he starts talking Luc realizes that he doesn’t know how much English Ana’s dad speaks, so he stumbles a little over his words as he tries not to use anything that might sound confusing. “Hi, I’m Luc, I’m - um - I’m one of Anastasia’s preschool teachers, and one of the after-school teachers is, uh, isn’t here, so I’m here instead.”

Ana’s dad shifts her over to one hip so he can extend his other hand out to shake. “Artemi. Thank you for take care.” Ana leans up and whispers something in Artemi’s ear. He smiles. “Oh, Mr. Luc! Yes, she tell me about you. Much.” He mimes talking with his free hand.

Luc blushes and shifts on his feet. “Oh, uh - that’s good, I guess.”

Artemi laughs. Luc isn’t sure how much he can stare at Artemi’s face before the other man starts getting creeped out. “Yes, she tell good things.”

“Well, she’s a great kid, so I’m glad she likes me too,” Luc says. He walks over to the lone backpack left in the gym, an Avengers-themed one with Black Widow on the biggest pocket, and grabs it along with Ana’s lunchbag.

“Where Mrs. Nat?” Artemi asks, taking the backpack and slinging it over his own shoulder.

“She’s on maternity leave. Uh, she’s having her baby soon.”

“Oh, right.” Artemi smiles. “Last week, she very…”

He mimes a large baby bump with his free hand, and Ana giggles.

“Yeah, exactly,” says Luc. “Hey - your sweatshirt, I have to ask. Do you go to OSU?”

Artemi looks down at his sweatshirt. “Yes, I work there, as physical therapist.” He glances back up at Luc, whose surprise must show on his face. “You think I’m student?”

Luc giggles nervously, even though Artemi’s smiling. “Well, I just - I don’t know, I just graduated from there, and you don’t look that much older than me-”

“Wow,” Artemi says, clutching his chest like he’s offended. His smile gives him away, though.

“Sorry, that must be annoying,” Luc says.

“No, it’s okay,” says Artemi. “I’m twenty-six, but people say baby face.”

Ana giggles again. “Baby face!”

“Why are you laughing, Ana?” Luc teases her. “You have a baby face just like your papa.”

Ana shrieks with laughter. “No, no!”

Artemi smiles and kisses the top of her head. He asks her a question in Russian - at least, Luc thinks it’s a question, because she nods very enthusiastically at the end.

“Да!”

“We always go to bakery after school,” Artemi explains to Luc, setting Ana down for a second so he can pull on her coat.

“Oh, no wonder she’s so excited,” Luc smiles.

The chic little coat - and the rest of Ana’s cute outfit - are probably her mom’s doing, Luc figures, if Artemi voluntarily chose to wear those jeans today. He sighs; all the good ones are always straight.

A guy can dream, though.

“Good to finally meet famous Mr. Luc,” Artemi says, picking Ana back up once she’s ready for the autumn weather. “Sorry I’m little bit late.”

“Oh, it’s fine, I didn’t even notice,” Luc lies immediately.

Artemi smiles again. God, he’s _so pretty,_ his smile most of all. “Thank you. Say bye, Nastya.”

“Bye, Mr. Luc,” Ana says, waving at him.

“Bye, Ana,” Luc says. “See you tomorrow. And, um, it was good to meet you - Artemi? Am I saying that right?”

“Little bit,” Artemi grins. “Almost like Russian. It’s okay, you get better.”

Luc blushes and waves again as they leave, the gym door closing on a rush of crisp autumn air. He stares at the closed door for a full ten seconds before it really starts to sink in how totally fucked he is.

xxx

“Is doing that after-school thing gonna be, like, a thing for you now?” Sonny asks as they walk into their apartment after practice. “Like, how long do you have to do it?”

“Until Cam’s wife has the baby,” Luc says. He shrugs his coat off and drapes it over a chair, and throws his gym bag next to the couch. “Why, did you miss me at warmups?”

Sonny snorts. “You wish.”

There’s a comfortable silence between them for a few moments, the kind shared by people who live together and know every aspect of each other’s lives. That’s all well and good, but Luc is horrified to realize he has the urge to tell Sonny about Artemi. Which is stupid, because there’s nothing to tell, but it’s suddenly taking real physical energy not to blurt out-

Oh, _god_. This is what he feels like when he has a little tiny _crush,_ even though he’s only met the guy _once,_ barely talked with him at all, but-

“What’s wrong with you?” Sonny asks, snapping his fingers in front of Luc’s face. “Yo. Luc.”

“What? Nothing,” Luc says, turning away and crouching down to unzip his gym bag.

“That’s not nothing,” Sonny says easily. He plops down on the couch and grins at him. “You’re, like, _blushing,_ dude. Holy shit.”

Luc feels his face flame even more and he looks resolutely down as he pulls his dirty clothes out so they don’t get all gross, something Sonny never does but should definitely be doing.

“Bet you wish you weren’t pale as shit, it’s so obvious on you,” Sonny says. He scoots closer and leans in to peer at Luc’s face, so of course Luc shoves a sweaty sock at him. “If you don’t tell me now I’ll just get it out of you next time we’re drunk.”

“I’m not - there’s nothing to tell,” Luc says, even though he knows Sonny’s right, unless miraculously Artemi stops being gorgeous by tomorrow.

Which is definitely not going to happen. Even if he wears those ripped jeans again.

“Look at you, that’s your boy smile,” Sonny crows, finally hitting the mark. “Is it a boy? Luc? _Luc._ Tell me.”

“God, you’re so _annoying,”_ Luc groans. He abandons his dirty clothes on the floor and straightens up to go sit on the couch opposite his roommate, then draws his legs up and wraps his arms around them.

“Wait, before you start,” Sonny says, and then doesn’t say anything else as he pulls out a pipe and a little baggie of weed.

“It’s not like it’s a huge story or anything, Jesus,” Luc says as Sonny grinds some up. “Oh, do you wanna make popcorn, too?”

Sonny shrugs and doesn’t rise to the bait. “I was gonna tonight anyway. This just makes it better.” He taps some into the bowl. “You want any?”

Luc shakes his head. “Drug test next week.”

“Oh, right. Sucks.” Sonny takes a hit while Luc glares at him and wonders why he’s even contemplating telling Sonny anything. “Okay, hit me.”

Luc rolls his eyes. But then he thinks about Artemi, and remembers he’s going to see him tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and it sure seems like too many feelings for Luc to keep completely to himself.

“Okay, so. Today was my first day doing the after-school thing, right? And part of the job is to stay til all the kids are picked up - well, obviously. So, the other teacher had to leave early, so it was just me staying until the end, and the last girl to get picked up-”

“I thought this was a boy story,” Sonny interrupts.

“It _is,”_ Luc snaps. “It’s about her _dad.”_

Sonny chokes in the middle of a hit and spews smoke everywhere, barely getting the pipe set upright before he doubles over and coughs a whole lot more. Luc wants to be mad, but it’s so funny that he ends up giggling.

“I’m glad - you think - this is funny,” Sonny chokes out. “I’m over here - _dying -_ and all you can think about is a DILF.”

Luc hits his leg. “He’s not a DILF!” Sonny arches an eyebrow. “Well - okay - technically, he is, but he’s not old, okay? He’s twenty-six.”

Now both of Sonny’s eyebrows are raised. “Twenty-six, huh? How old’s his kid?”

“She’s four.”

“That’s like - holy shit, that’s like if I had a kid right now,” Sonny says, his eyes widening. He reaches for the pipe, coughs one more time, then takes another hit. “I’m not ready for a kid, Luc.”

“You don’t have to be,” Luc laughs. “She’s not yours.”

“Like, at our age? I know it’s a thing, and people do it, but like - look at us,” Sonny says. “I feel like _I’m_ still a kid, you know?”

Luc nods. He gets it, but - it’s never exactly been a secret that he loves kids and wants some of his own. Like, two or three, _minimum._ He’d constantly gotten chirped for his “baby fever” in college, and it was completely deserved.

But, still. Sonny’s right, he still kind of feels like a kid himself.

“Like, teen parents, and shit,” Sonny mumbles. “They’re, like - on a different plane. Different energies. I don’t get it.”

Luc laughs. “That’s why you’re not a parent, man.”

“True. So, wait, you never actually told me what happened.”

“Oh, well - nothing _happened,_ I just met this guy for the first time and now I can’t stop thinking about him. He was so cute,” Luc says.

“What’s his name?”

“Artemi,” says Luc. Sonny raises an eyebrow. “He’s Russian.”

“Oh, interesting,” says Sonny. “International relations, right? You gonna bang him?”

Luc hits his leg again, harder this time. _“Jesus_ , Sonny. First of all, he’s probably married, and second of all, he’s a student’s parent. Oh, and third of all, he’s probably straight - like, he’s _Russian,_ okay, I’m-”

“Was he wearing a ring?” Sonny asks, unfazed.

“What?”

Sonny wiggles his left hand. “A wedding ring. You didn’t even look?”

Luc stares at him. He - no, he didn’t.

“Well,” Sonny says, sounding satisfied. “That’s step one. Duh. Easy. You should come to me with all your problems.”

“I - it’s not a _problem,”_ Luc tries, sounding weak even to his own ears. “You’re the worst therapist ever.”

Sonny cackles like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard.

xxx

After school the next day, Luc finds himself wishing that Artemi shows up late again, and he’s only a _little_ bit ashamed to admit that. Of course, the day that Luc _wants_ it to happen, it doesn’t - Artemi shows up in the middle of a rush of other parents right before 5, and Luc doesn’t have a chance to even say hi.

He does have a chance to (very discreetly) check for a ring, though, like Sonny said. And there isn’t any - his left hand is bare, and, more importantly, so is his right.

(Yeah, Luc looked it up, okay? Apparently Russians usually wear their wedding rings on their right hand. Luc’s just a curious guy interested in learning more about other cultures.)

So, whatever, Artemi’s _probably_ not married. That doesn’t mean anything. He could be one of those guys who wears his ring on a chain around his neck or something, or maybe he’s in a long-term domestic partnership but they decided marriage wasn’t for them, or-

“Jesus Christ, Luc,” is all Sonny has to say to that.

Two more school days pass before Luc finally finds himself back in the now-welcome position of staying late with Anastasia after all the other kids have been picked up.

“Want to build something?” he asks Anastasia, getting out a box of legos.

Ana nods. “Замок!”

“Hmm. My Russian isn’t so good, do you know how to say that in English?” Luc tries.

Ana pauses for a second; her eyes flicker away from Luc and then back to him, and she says, “Castle?” very slowly and carefully.

“Oh, a castle!” Luc says, putting on an extra big smile. “That’s great, thank you so much for telling me. Let’s build a castle. How do you say it in Russian again? Maybe you can help teach me.”

Ana’s eyes go very wide at that, and for a second Luc thinks she’s going to cry - but, no, she’s just really excited. “Mr. Luc! _You’re_ teacher.” She points at him for emphasis.

Luc laughs and pours out the legos onto the floor. “Not for this, I’m not. You get to be Ms. Ana.”

Ana giggles, looking delighted, and grabs the first few pieces to build a castle. “We make castle. _Zamok.”_

“Za-mok,” Luc repeats. He’s getting more English out of her than any of the other teachers have been able to, so he’ll say it a thousand times as long as she keeps this up.

“No, no,” Ana shakes her head. _“Zamok.”_

“Za-mok,” Luc says again, shaping the ‘o’ differently.

“Да, да,” Ana nods. “You say right!”

Luc smiles. “Thank you so much for teaching me.”

Ana blushes and fits a couple of the lego pieces together, her brow furrowing with concentration. She mumbles something in Russian and smiles up at Luc.

“Maybe one day I’ll be able to understand full sentences, but let’s just stick with words for now,” Luc tells her.

He hands her another lego piece.

“Спасибо,” Ana says. Then she pauses again, glances up at him, and fiddles with the lego structure for a few seconds before saying, “Thank you,” very slowly and carefully.

“Is that how you say thank you in Russian?” Luc asks.

By the time Artemi arrives, Luc knows a handful of Russian words, Ana’s spoken a few full English phrases, and the castle’s about halfway built.

“Papa!”

“Золотце,” Artemi coos. He looks over at Luc immediately even as he pulls his daughter into a hug. “So sorry for late.”

“It’s okay,” Luc says quickly. Artemi’s wearing those horrible jeans again, but his dark striped sweater looks good on him. Luc stands up to go get Ana’s backpack and lunchbag. “She got to teach me some Russian words while we waited.”

Artemi smiles. “Really? Show me.”

Luc’s cheeks flame and he knows he’s blushing. He says “ _Priv-yet”_ very clumsily.

“Not bad,” Artemi says. He puts Ana’s backpack on one shoulder after he’s gotten her coat on, then hoists her up into his arms and kisses her forehead. “You’re good teacher, Nastya.”

Ana giggles and says something in Russian.

Artemi’s face softens when he looks back at Luc. Luc doesn’t know what Ana said but he feels frozen on the spot, his heart swelling so much it feels like it’s aching and bursting out of his ribs, just from being on the receiving end of that gaze. He’s sure he looks like a deer in headlights.

Artemi opens his mouth, then closes it. Then he finally says, “Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” Luc says slowly, unsure if Artemi’s just thanking him for looking after Anastasia.

xxx

Luc has to break the castle back into its little lego blocks so other kids can use them during playtime the next day, but after school Artemi’s even later picking Ana up than he usually is. It’s a Friday, and Artemi’s so late that Luc and Ana have time to completely finish a castle from scratch and Luc’s vaguely considering asking his boss how overtime works here, something he hasn’t had to do up until now.

(Not that he’s not happy to do this, but he might as well get paid for it.)

Finally Artemi rushes in, looking so out of sorts that Luc immediately stands up in alarm. “Is everything okay?”

“So sorry, so sorry,” Artemi keeps saying.

“It’s fine, hey, don’t worry,” Luc assures him. He almost wants to reach out and… comfort Artemi, like even just pat him on the back or something, but it’s not exactly appropriate, plus Artemi’s already reaching down to pick up Anastasia. “What happened?”

“At practice,” Artemi says. “Player break clavicle. I’m not see on ice, I’m in training room, but coach want I take him to hospital. So we go, I’m drive him - I think, couple minute drive, yes? Short.”

“Nothing in the ER is ever short,” Luc says, before he processes the rest of the sentence. “Wait - on the ice. Like, hockey ice?”

Artemi nods. “Yes, physical therapist for hockey team.” Luc’s face does something that probably makes him look way too excited about someone getting their collarbone broken. “But, is like you say, not short in ER - I drive fast to get here, but very late. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Luc says again. “Sorry, I’m smiling because I, uh, used to play. Hockey. At OSU.”

“Oh, really?” Artemi looks excited. “When?”

“2013 to 2017,” says Luc. He goes to pick up Ana’s backpack, just so he has something to do besides standing still and making a fool out of himself from how giddy he’s getting. “I actually, um, captained the team my last year.”

When Artemi takes Ana’s backpack this time, his hand lingers on Luc’s a little bit. Or else Luc is just imagining things.

“Captain?” Artemi smiles, his eyebrows raised. “They talk about you.”

“Oh, geez.”

Artemi laughs. “They love you. But I’m not know is you - they say ‘PLD.’”

“Oh,” Luc laughs. “That’s my initials - uh, the first letters of my names, you know? My full name is Pierre-Luc Dubois, so P, L, and D.” He points at imaginary letters like that will somehow help him get his point across.

“Mm, I understand,” Artemi says. “Initials, yes?”

He sounds out the new word carefully and Luc nods. “Yeah. So - is it your first year with the team, then? Since, uh. I know you weren’t there last year.”

He can’t help but laugh at himself, but he’s happy to see that Artemi’s giggling too. “Yes. We-”

“Papa,” Anastasia whines, squirming in Artemi’s arms. “Я усталa.”

Artemi chuckles and kisses her hair, murmuring something soft into it. His voice sounds so nice when he speaks Russian. Well, Luc thinks it sounds nice _all_ the time, but especially right now. Artemi smiles when he glances back up at Luc.

“She tired. Papa talk too much.”

Luc blushes, but before he can say anything, Artemi makes a little noise like he’s remembered something, then reaches into his pocket. “Hospital give for you, Nastya.”

It’s just a little package of animal crackers, but Ana grabs them and tears into them like the school didn’t let her eat all day.

“Sometimes tired is want food,” Artemi whispers to Luc. Luc giggles even as his heart gives a little twinge. “But we go now - cookies not good dinner.”

“Oh, definitely,” says Luc. “I, um, I hope you have a good weekend.”

Artemi smiles softly. “You too. Bye, Luc.”

“Bye,” Luc chokes out after Artemi turns and carries Ana toward the door.

Just before they leave the gym, Ana asks her father something that’s too faint (and probably too non-English) for Luc to catch, but it makes Artemi burst into laughter and turn around to look at Luc.

“What’s so funny?” Luc grins.

“She ask why no cookies for you,” Artemi calls across the gym, still laughing. “Sorry I’m not give.”

“Oh,” Luc laughs, scratching the back of his neck as he blushes and walks a little closer. “Oh, man. That’s very sweet of you, Ana.”

“Maybe next week we buy from bakery and give to Mr. Luc, что ты думаешь, Nastya?” Artemi asks her, his eyes still on Luc. Ana giggles.

Luc’s face feels like it’s on fire. “Oh - I - that-”

“What you like?” Artemi asks him. Luc - Luc _swears_ he’s smirking, holy shit. “You like sweet?”

“I - um, I-”

Okay, he’s _definitely_ smirking now. “I give you sweet, okay?”

“Y-Yeah,” Luc nods dumbly.

He doesn’t manage to choke anything else out before Artemi and Ana are gone.

xxx

“Holy _shit_ , dude, get it,” Josh says.

Luc grins into his beer, completely shameless now that he’s three deep. “He just, like - he just fuckin’ _said_ that, can you believe it?”

“Do you get hit on by parents a lot?” Zach asks, looking curious.

Their beer league team - half former OSU players, half locals - is out in Short North for the night. Luc wasn’t going to bring anything up about the, uh, very interesting week he’s had, but Sonny asked him about it before heading off to play pool and the guys still at their table demanded to know what was going on.

“No, never,” Luc says. “But I’m trying not to, like, take it too seriously, you know? Like, I keep thinking about it, but what if he just didn’t know any other words to ask me what kind of stuff I wanted from the bakery?”

“First of all, if he’s bringing you stuff from a bakery, you’re already past normal,” Seth says.

“Okay, but - that could’ve been a joke too, y’know? I don’t wanna think about it too hard, I just - I don’t know.”

“We should ask the younger guys about him,” Josh says. “See if the new PT’s gushing about this fuckin’ beefcake that works at his daughter’s preschool.”

“Oh my god,” Luc groans, covering his face with his hands. It’s all getting way too real way too fast; part of him thinks this was more fun when it was just a little fantasy in his head. “I should never have brought this up.”

“It’s too late for that,” Zach says helpfully.

“Thanks, Z.”

“Look, though, let’s say it turns out he wants to smash, what do you do?” asks Seth. “You can’t actually do it, right? If anyone else found out-”

 _“Jesus,_ Jonesy, Luc’s about to rawdog this guy and you’re out here-”

 _“Oh my god.”_ Luc slaps a hand over Josh’s mouth. “Can we please talk about something else?”

He thought it would be good to gloat about Artemi’s teasing today, but the more Luc thinks about it - and talks about it, and gets it fucking dissected by his friends - the more he’s concerned that it didn’t mean anything at all. Artemi probably hasn’t thought about that conversation at all since he left school, and here Luc is overthinking it to death when he should be enjoying his Friday night.

Josh wrenches Luc’s hand off his mouth. “I’ll shut up, but you have to tell us if anything actually happens, okay?”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Luc says. “But okay, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment to let me know what you thought! It always inspires me and motivates me to write more :)
> 
> Translations that aren't given (please let me know if anything is off!):
> 
> Золотце - pet name for someone precious to you; literally "(little) gold"  
> что вы думаете - what do you think


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luc has his first round of parent-teacher conferences and takes on more responsibility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More soft sweet flirty French Bread :)

Luc tries not to feel disappointed the following Monday when Artemi picks Ana up on time and doesn’t bring any baked goods. It’s a cold and rainy day, and at five o’clock the gym is full of parents trying to wrangle children, backpacks, umbrellas, and, in some cases, rainboots; Artemi is one of those parents, helping Ana pull on a pair of shiny yellow boots as he tucks her sneakers in the pockets of his coat.

Luc’s not staring. He’s _not._ He just - likes him. A little bit.

Artemi catches his eye when he and Anastasia are heading out and smiles, giving Luc a small wave before the two of them duck out into the rain, and Luc feels his stomach twist.

Okay - maybe more than a little bit. _Damn_ it.

“Aw, he didn’t bring anything?” Sonny asks when Luc gets home. “Maybe it really _was_ a metaphor. He was talking about his sweet dick the whole time.”

Luc sighs. “I don’t think that’s the takeaway here.”

xxx

Since he just graduated from college in June, it’s still weird for Luc to think that any adult would ever listen to anything he has to say, but his first-ever round of parent-teacher conferences is coming up on Thursday. It’s an opportunity for Luc and Mrs. Jeffries - who has told him multiple times to call her Deborah, please, but who is also old enough that Luc can’t seem to break the habit of addressing her formally - to let the parents know how their children interact with the other kids in their class, how they interact with adults, how they’re progressing in developmental areas, and what they’re going to be learning this year.

Luc’s been nervous for this day ever since he started, only because he can’t imagine telling a parent _about their own child_ with any sense of authority. The “conferences” are supposed to start at 7. To boost his confidence, he has an outfit picked out beforehand, with just enough time to go home, shower, change, and style his hair if he leaves school at 5.

So, of course, come Thursday night, Luc is still at school at 5:30.

“Do you know what a polo shirt is?” he asks Anastasia, who’s intently coloring what may or may not be a green sunset.

Ana looks up at him.

“Nevermind,” Luc says. “I had a great outfit I was going to wear for the parent-teacher conferences tonight, but I don’t know if I’m going to get a chance to wear it.”

“Почему нет?” Ana says.

Luc has noticed that it’s a little difficult to convince her to _start_ speaking English every time they have a conversation, but once she’s over the hump, English seems to come easier for her after that. “I’m not that good at Russian, remember, Ana? Could you try it in English?”

Ana sticks her tongue out in concentration and picks up another crayon. “Why not?”

“Thank you,” Luc says, just like he’s sure to say every time. “Well, the conferences start pretty soon, and I have to be here early. I think I might just stay at school until then.”

“What about dinner?” Ana asks.

“That’s a good point,” Luc says. “I’m not sure. I might have to eat dinner afterwards.”

Ana hums and colors in a few red sunbeams. “It’s because Papa is late?”

“Oh, no,” Luc lies immediately. “If he was on time I would still probably have to stay. It’s - don’t worry about it, it’s not a big deal, I just really wanted to wear my nice shirt for tonight.”

“What color?”

“My shirt?” Ana nods. “It’s, like, a light purple.” Luc looks for a crayon that’s about the same shade. “Like this.”

Ana picks up the crayon and looks at it carefully. “Pretty!”

Luc smiles. “Yeah, I think so too. Oh, you don’t have to-”

Ana’s already colored half of the sky light purple.

“Those colors look great together,” Luc tells her. “Which one’s your favorite?”

Ana stares at the drawing for a bit and then points to the sun, which is a dark green.

“Green?” Luc asks.

Ana smiles. “Yes, _this_ green.”

Luc’s about to ask her for the color’s Russian equivalent when the door to the gym opens and Artemi walks in. When Ana runs over to him and Artemi squats down to give her a hug, Luc notices that it’s a one-handed hug - Artemi has a white paper bag carefully clutched in his other hand.

Ana seems to notice it too, because she asks, “Bakery?”

Luc’s surprised she’s addressing her father in English - when she speaks English, it’s always for Luc’s benefit - and Artemi looks a little surprised, but pleased, too.

“Yes, bakery first today,” Artemi says, standing back up. “For gift.”

He smiles at Luc; Luc suddenly forgets about the time crunch, the parent-teacher conferences, all of it.

“You really didn’t have to,” Luc says weakly as Artemi hands him the bag.

Artemi smirks. “I know.”

Luc opens the bag and peers inside to see what look like soft meringues. “Ooh, are these marshmallows?”

“I don’t know,” Artemi says. “Зефир is like - sweet, and soft, little bit like fruit. You try.”

“Oh, that sounds great,” Luc says. “They’re probably gonna be my dinner.”

Artemi frowns. “Why? They good, but not healthy.”

“We have the parent-teacher conferences at 7 but I have to be here at 6:30,” Luc explains, taking one out of the bag. “I think I’m just going to stay.”

He takes a bite; it’s soft, chewy, and tastes faintly like apples underneath the sugary marshmallow goodness. Or maybe berries. Some kind of fruit. It’s _really_ good.

“Wow, these are good,” Luc says.

“Good,” Artemi echoes. “Some have chocolate, around.”

As Artemi goes to collect Ana’s backpack and lunch bag, Luc looks inside the bakery bag again and notices that some of them have a chocolate coating. Best dinner _ever._

“Thank you so much,” he says. “You _really_ didn’t have to - I mean, you could’ve brought these to the conference tonight and really wowed all the teachers.”

“Yes,” Artemi says, handing Ana her coat, “but then I need _buy_ for all teachers.”

Luc laughs, pleased, as his cheeks start to warm up.

“You’re Papa’s favorite,” Anastasia pipes up from Artemi’s side.

Artemi’s face turns bright red in an instant. “Time to go, Nastya.”

Luc can’t stop smiling as they turn to leave.

xxx

Nia’s parents are the third couple tonight to take honest-to-god notes on what Luc and Deborah are telling them. Luc thinks it’s a little much - after all, the kids are only in preschool - but, then again, he’d probably be doing the same thing if he were in their place.

“It was great to meet you, Mrs. Okemo,” he tells Nia’s mom as they all stand up.

“A pleasure meeting you both,” Mrs. Okemo says, giving them handshakes and a warm smile.

“And good to see you again, Luc,” Nia’s dad says, shaking Luc’s hand as well. “Thanks again, both of you.”

Once they leave, notes safely stored in Mrs. Okemo’s purse, Luc and Deborah sit back down.

“Alright, that’s… Mr. and Mrs. Okemo…” Deborah mutters to herself, checking them off the list. “Who’s next… Mr. Panarin. Oh, little Ana’s dad. Can you go get him?”

“Sure,” Luc says, running a hand through his hair as he stands up. He’s been so nervous for all the other parents tonight that at this point he’s _excited_ to see Artemi, instead of the vaguely obsessive anxiety he usually feels when he sees him.

Luc sticks his head out into the hallway, where a couple of parents are sitting in folding chairs lining the walls. “Mr. Panarin?”

He can’t help the way his mouth quirks when he sees Artemi, who gives him a bright smile in return and almost giggles as he gets up to walk through the door Luc’s holding open.

“Your shirt,” Artemi says, pointing at him.

Luc looks down. “Oh - right, yeah,” he laughs. “I actually did have time to go back home and change.”

Artemi’s changed, too - out of his OSU sweatshirt and into a tan polo shirt underneath a leather jacket. Luc is embarrassingly into it.

Deborah looks politely interested as they sit down, so Luc adds, “He just picked up Ana from after-school club a couple hours ago and we were talking about how I wanted to change outfits for tonight.”

Deborah laughs. “I love the dedication.” She turns to Artemi. “And how are you, Mr. Panarin?”

“Good, thank you,” Artemi says. He takes out his phone. “Okay if I record? Good for me to listen later, I make sure I understand everything.”

That’s pretty much the equivalent of taking notes. Luc is enchanted.

“Of course, of course,” Deborah says. “Thank you for coming in. I’m Deborah Jeffries, and I see you’ve already met Pierre-Luc.”

“Nice to meet you,” Artemi says, shaking her hand. “Artemi.”

“Now, just to clarify before we get started, you’re the only parent at home, correct?” Deborah asks him, opening Ana’s file.

The corner of Artemi’s mouth twitches. “Yes, only me.”

Well. That answers that question. It must be in the paperwork he filled out for the school - and it’s not like Luc was going to go snooping through _there_ for answers.

 _Not that it matters,_ he reminds himself.

“And how long have you lived in Columbus?” Deborah asks, making a note on her own notepad.

“We just move here,” Artemi says. “July, for work.”

“Okay,” Deborah says, making another note.

“Chicago, before,” Artemi continues. “For work. And before, Russia.”

“Is that where Ana was born?” Deborah asks.

Artemi nods.

“That’s a big move,” Luc says.

“Yes, but she tiny,” Artemi laughs. His face changes a little when he says, “She not… memory, at all.”

“She doesn’t remember?” Luc clarifies gently. Artemi nods.

Deborah makes a noise, another note. “I will say, Mr. Panarin, that even though moving can be pretty tough for kids, Ana hasn’t shown any signs of stress or anxiety that we watch out for in preschoolers. She’s very open and friendly with the other children, and she doesn’t have more tantrums than we’d expect from a four-year-old.”

Luc’s eyes stay on Artemi, who blinks a couple times while he absorbs what she’s saying. Finally, he smiles softly. “Good. Good to hear.”

“She’s a great kid,” Luc says, then feels stupid for saying it. “Obviously.”

Artemi’s smile gets bigger and Deborah laughs.

“Yes, Luc is very clearly her favorite out of the two of us,” Deborah says.

Luc blushes. “Yeah, but-”

“But some of the other girls prefer tea-time with me during free play, so it all works out.”

“True,” Luc laughs. “So, like - to give you more specifics, Ana’s outgoing and cooperative with the other kids during playtime, which is something we definitely look for. She’s getting better at drawing, too - well, I’m sure you’ve seen-”

“Yes,” Artemi smiles. “She give me - many.”

They all laugh. “It’s great,” Luc says. “By her age, we’re looking for her to be able to copy shapes, maybe draw some stick figures, which she’s obviously able to do.”

“Stick figure superheroes,” Deborah says fondly.

“Yes, she love.” There’s a little wash of pink on Artemi’s cheeks now; he looks proud, and it’s really doing a number on Luc’s heart.

“And we’ve started doing hopscotch during free play some days as well, which she also loves. It took her a little bit to figure it out, same as the rest of the kids, but now they can’t get enough of it.”

“Hop… scotch?” Artemi asks curiously.

“It’s a - jumping game,” Luc tries.

Artemi’s face settles immediately. _“Oh,_ jumping game. Yes. All the time.”

They all laugh again. Then Luc knows what Deborah’s going to bring up next, because he knows she’s still worried about it, and he kind of wishes he could not be here for this part.

“Now, Mr. Panarin, there is one thing I am concerned about,” Deborah begins. “By her age, a lot of kids are able to tell detailed stories - completely made-up stuff, usually, but my point is they’re using full sentences, even putting them together, to communicate with others. In terms of milestones, that’s the only one we’re really not seeing from Ana yet, at least in English. I’m not sure if it’s different for her with Russian.”

Artemi sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “She can do in Russian. She talk very much at home - she has, um… ‘friends,’ not real-”

“Imaginary friends,” Deborah says.

“Yes,” Artemi nods. “She tell stories always, with them. And stories from school, real stories. After school, she-” He mimes talking a lot with his hand.

“Oh, okay,” says Deborah. “Do you think she’s having trouble learning English, then?”

Artemi frowns. “I don’t know. She’s - um - she’s not speak English much because she not _want_. I try to help, I tell her important, but is hard. My English is bad.”

“It’s not bad at all,” Luc says quickly.

“We’re sitting here having this conversation, aren’t we? We’re communicating perfectly fine,” Deborah adds.

Artemi shrugs. “Yes, but I think - um, I’m worry - she hear English from me, she _learn_ English from me, you know? Bad English. Kids mean, they tease to her.”

Luc’s eyebrows shoot up. “She’s getting teased for it?”

“Not tease here,” Artemi says. “Tease in Chicago.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Deborah says.

Luc’s no stranger to kids teasing each other, but he feels his heart break just a little bit.

Artemi sighs. His facial expression hasn’t changed, but his eyes look so much sadder than Luc’s ever seen them. “Not tease long time - teacher stop after a week, but she not want to speak English since.”

“That poor thing,” Deborah says.

“She - um, she’s been pretty good about using English with me over the last couple weeks,” Luc says gently. “I had no idea.”

Artemi’s eyes soften. “You’re good with her.”

“Well, I, uh, I grew up bilingual - um, speaking two languages too,” Luc stammers, his cheeks flaming. “I know you said you’re concerned about her grammar - like, the kind of English she’s learning, right?”

Artemi nods after a second.

“I don’t think you need to worry too much about that part. Since everyone’s speaking English around her all day - you know, we are, the kids are, people at the store are - it’s not just you she’s learning English from.”

“And I don’t have personal experience with this, but I know many parents in bilingual households like to have a few TV shows in each language for their children to watch,” Deborah says. “We always say kids are like sponges with language - they just soak it up.”

“Okay,” Artemi nods, looking intent. “So - English TV. Some.”

“It’ll help her, for sure,” Luc says. “And, well, hopefully it’ll help you, too? Like, you can feel better about English at home.”

Artemi smiles at him gratefully.

“Yes, that should help, but I’m still concerned about how we’ll know it’s helping,” Deborah says. “Before this meeting I was considering setting Ana up with some supplemental language education, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what she needs. Would you agree, Luc?”

Luc spares a second to marvel at the fact that these _adults_ are soliciting his _opinion_ about something that literally impacts a _human child_ , then gets with the program. He _did_ go to school for this, after all. “She hasn’t had any trouble expressing herself in English once she gets comfortable speaking it. I think - now that I know that she’s reluctant, it makes sense, because the toughest part about every conversation with her is getting it started in English. Once she gets going, she’s fine.”

“She tell me,” Artemi says softly. Luc looks over at him, sees him, feels - raw. “She say, ‘Papa, Mr. Luc not tease me.’”

“Oh my goodness,” Deborah says, as Luc puts a hand over his mouth.

God, if she expects to get teased every time she opens her mouth, no _wonder_ she doesn’t want to.

“Luc, since Ana already trusts you,” Deborah continues slowly, “and since I’m having a tough time deciding whether we should consult with a speech therapist or a… a counselor, or someone else, without knowing how much English she actually knows, would you consider a few ‘tutoring’ sessions of sorts? Just for evaluation.”

“Oh, like - just to figure out next steps? Or to get her confidence up?” Luc asks.

Deborah smiles. “Both.” She turns to Artemi. “Is that alright with you, Mr. Panarin? We want to make sure Ana is as comfortable as possible here, and if she needs more help we don’t want to wait too long to get it. Does that make sense?”

“Yes, yes,” Artemi nods. He glances at Luc. “How this work?”

Luc looks over at Deborah, who as far as he’s concerned is running this whole show. “Uh…”

“Well, I was thinking you could meet with her a couple times before the end of the month,” Deborah says. “Not during school - I don’t want to take away her time with the other kids - but some other time that works for both of you.” She gestures between Luc and Artemi. “You can use the teacher’s lounge, since it might be uncomfortable for Ana to be in this room outside of school time. Is that okay?”

“I mean - yeah, that works for me, I’m happy to help,” Luc says. “As long as it works with your schedule, Ar- Mr. Panarin.”

Artemi’s mouth quirks up. “I make work.”

xxx

Luc and Deborah iron out the details after the conference is over and all the parents have gone home. Twice a week after the rest of the kids have been picked up, Luc and Anastasia will go to the teacher’s lounge for a “class” - which will mostly just be more conversation - and Artemi will join them once he gets there from work. Luc’s goal for this is to figure out roughly how big Ana’s vocabulary is, her comfort level, and whether any additional help is necessary.

He also leaves school that night having exchanged numbers with Artemi, but he’s so overwhelmed by the _trust_ that both Artemi and Mrs. Jeffries have placed in him that it overshadows the rush of now having Artemi’s number. They’re _counting_ on him to help Ana out, and he’s not going to let them down.

Luc gets home that night and barely spares time to say hi to Sonny and microwave a bowl of leftover pasta before he’s shutting himself in his room with dinner and his laptop, excited to see how other people have approached this and what kind of “lesson plans” he can use.

xxx

“While we wait for your papa I have some games we can play,” Luc says as he walks slowly down the hall, Ana toddling along next to him.

“Why are we leaving?” Ana asks.

Luc smiles. “We’re just gonna go to the teacher’s lounge. There are chairs in there, which is great because my back’s starting to hurt from sitting on the floor all day.”

“My back doesn’t hurt,” Ana says.

“That’s because you’re young,” Luc says. “And strong.”

He holds open the door to the lounge and lets Ana walk in first. She looks around the new room, taking it in for a few seconds, before turning back to him.

“Mr. Luc, are you old?”

Luc laughs. “Yeah, but not too old. I’m sure you’ve met people who are much older.”

Ana nods, climbing up into one of the chairs. “You don’t have gray hair.”

“That’s very true.” Luc gets out some paper, crayons, and a few colored blocks.

For a moment, they don’t talk at all while Ana dumps some crayons onto the table and picks up a sheet of paper to draw on. Luc thinks very carefully about the different parts of the ‘evaluation’ he has planned, adapted from a couple checklists he found while doing research over the weekend.

Then, he pretends not to notice as he knocks a crayon onto the floor.

“Mr. Luc!” Ana giggles.

“Hmm?” Luc asks. “What did I do?”

“You dropped it!”

“What did I drop?” Luc prods.

“The crayon,” Ana laughs. “You dropped the crayon!”

“Oh, wow,” says Luc. “I’m so clumsy! Thanks for noticing.”

He bends over in his chair to pick it up and mentally checks _past tense_ off of his word morphology checklist.

By the time Artemi makes his way in, thanks to some thorough directions Luc texted him, Ana is explaining to Luc how to make a peanut butter sandwich in slow, painstaking detail.

“And then Papa… and then Papa puts the peanut butter, um, on the bread,” Ana tells him, her eyes wide and earnest. She keeps pronouncing peanut like ‘pih-nut,’ and it’s adorable, but part of this is supposed to be giving her the confidence to use English with the other kids, so Luc figures he should gently correct her pronunciation whenever he can.

“Oh, okay,” Luc says. “You know, ‘peanut’ is a funny word, because a lot of people in America really say the ‘ee.’”

Ana frowns at him. “Pee?”

“Yeah, peanut.”

Ana stares at him for one more second, then starts shrieking with laughter. “You said pee!”

Luc starts laughing with her - he can’t help it. “It’s not my fault that’s how people say it!”

“PEE-nut!” Ana yells in between giggles. “Peanut!”

There’s a soft knock on the door, then Artemi sticks his head in. Luc hasn’t seen him since Friday - obviously - and the gentle smile on his face coupled with his wide, expectant eyes is enough to make Luc’s heart kick against his ribs.

“Papa!” Ana squeals. “Papa, peanut! _Peanut!”_

“Peanut?” Artemi repeats, as Ana barrels over to hug his legs. He strokes over her hair; Luc’s still chuckling. “Like for sandwich?”

Artemi says it the same way Ana does - or, did, if the new (and hilarious) pronunciation sticks. It’s so cute.

“PEE-nut,” Ana says again.

“In my defense, that _is_ how we say it,” Luc says when Artemi looks questioningly at him, “but if I really think about it, it’s kind of silly.”

“Very silly.” Artemi smiles and leads Ana back over to the table. “You having fun, Nastya?”

“Yes,” Ana says. “Bakery now?”

“Soon,” Artemi promises, and pulls up a chair next to Ana at the table, across from Luc.

Luc had wanted to wait until Artemi was here for this next part.

“Before you go today, I wanted to ask you something, Ana,” he says gently. “Your papa told me that some bad kids made fun of you for speaking English last year, in Chicago. Do you remember that?”

Ana glances over at Luc, then at her father, then at Luc again; she nods slowly. Artemi scoots closer and pulls her into his lap.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Luc says. “You didn’t deserve that, and it was wrong of them to do that.”

Artemi kisses the top of Anastasia’s head, and she stays quiet.

Luc waits a beat before asking, “Do you think the other kids here would make fun of you if you spoke English?”

Ana shrugs.

“Really? I don’t think so,” Luc says. “I really don’t think they would. Who’s your favorite friend here?”

“Um… Ellen,” Ana says, after considering it.

“Ellen’s super nice, isn’t she?” Luc pushes. Ana nods. “Do you think she would make fun of you for speaking English?”

Ana’s quiet for a bit. Then she says, “No.”

“I don’t think so either,” Luc says. “Do you want to play a little game tomorrow?”

“Is there a prize?” Ana perks up a little bit.

Luc glances at Artemi. Artemi smiles softly. “Yes, but it’s surprise, Nastya.”

“Oh, okay.”

Luc smiles. “So, here’s the game. I want you to ask Ellen about her favorite Disney character tomorrow during playtime. In English. And if she asks you a question back, you have to respond in English too.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Ana asks.

“What if she doesn’t what?”

“If she doesn’t ask me back.”

“If she doesn’t ask another question,” Luc corrects, “then you can be done for the day. Unless you want to talk to her more. That’s the game for tomorrow, okay?”

“One question?” Ana asks.

“One question,” Luc confirms. “And more, if you want. But all you have to do is ask her about her favorite Disney character and you’ll win the prize. Does that sound fair?” Ana nods. “Great. And if you like the game, we can play it the next day too.”

“Okay,” Ana says. “Papa, I’m gonna win!”

“I know, золотце,” Artemi says. He raises his eyebrows and mouths ‘gonna’ at Luc, looking excited.

Luc, who also did not miss that, hopes that the more phrases Ana uses that she obviously didn’t learn from Artemi, the better Artemi will feel about her learning. He gives Artemi a subtle thumbs up and watches his smile grow.

“I’ll let you go to the bakery now,” Luc tells Ana, pushing his chair back from the table and standing up. “Did you have fun today?”

“Yeah!” Ana says immediately. She twists around in her father’s lap to look at him. “Papa, can Mr. Luc come with us?”

Luc flushes, secretly pleased, and bites his lip as he watches Artemi’s cheeks turn pink, clearly at a loss.

“That’s very nice of you, Ana, but I actually have to get to practice,” Luc says. “For my hockey team.”

“Hockey?” Ana repeats.

Artemi nods and repeats the word, but he makes the ‘h’ sound a lot more throaty. Ana smiles and says something in Russian, sounding excited, and Artemi chuckles and says something back.

Then he turns to Luc. “She know I work for hockey players.”

“Oh, right,” Luc says. “Not us, though, Ana. Our team is definitely not at OSU’s level. Super casual.”

“But you have practice,” Artemi points out, standing up. He sets Ana on the floor and hands her her coat.

“Yeah, true. That’s more just to, like, run plays and stuff. We don’t do drills or anything, we don’t even have a coach, and we _definitely_ don’t have PTs or trainers.” Luc laughs. “Sometimes I wish we did, though. I miss getting stretched out after a game.”

A fraction of a second after it leaves his mouth Luc realizes that could definitely be interpreted multiple ways; a little thrill of horror runs through him, up until Artemi raises an eyebrow and smirks at him.

“You don’t need trainer for that.”

“Oh my god,” Luc groans, covering half his face with his hand. He wants to tell Artemi to shut up, but he doesn’t want to set a bad example for his daughter.

Artemi giggles quietly then grabs Ana’s backpack. “Say bye, Nastya.”

“Bye, Mr. Luc,” Anastasia says dutifully.

“Have good practice,” Artemi tells Luc as he opens the door. “Stretch after.”

“Stop it,” Luc laughs. “See you tomorrow.”

Artemi smiles. “See you.”

xxx

“Would it be against the rules?” Luc asks Cam as the two of them take a Gatorade break by the bench. _“Are_ there rules? I didn’t read the fine print when I got the job.”

“You’re such a fucking idiot,” Cam says. “But… honestly? I have no idea. None of my students have ever asked me to hang out with them and their parents.”

“Well, they _are_ third graders. I think my kids are young enough that I’m still cool to them.”

Cam laughs. “Fair. Hey, maybe she’s just trying to wingman for her dad.”

Luc chokes on his Gatorade.

“Yeah, Z told me everything,” Cam grins. “Nat’s losing her shit about it.”

“Oh god,” Luc groans.

“I’ve never met him, but Nat says he’s cute,” Cam barrels on. “Should I be worried? Is he taller than me?”

Luc laughs and rests his elbow on the top of Cam’s head while he pretends to think. “Hmm.”

“Asshole.”

“Honestly though, he’s about your height,” says Luc. “I think you’re safe, Nat’s not gonna leave you for him.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you got him locked up,” Cam grins.

“I - it’s not - anything, _stop_ it, it’s nothing.” Luc wishes he didn’t blush so easily.

Of course, his phone chooses that time to buzz on the bench. Luc leans over and grabs it, then smiles when he sees that Artemi texted him back.

Five minutes ago, Luc had texted him a photo of most of the guys just standing around and talking on the ice, with the caption **I told you it was casual!** He slides open his phone to read Artemi’s response.

First there’s a string of (Face With Tears Of Joy )(Face With Tears Of Joy )(Face With Tears Of Joy ), then Artemi’s written, **What’s record? 0-10? 0-20?**

Luc smiles at the chirp.

“Why are you smiling?” Cam asks, nosy. “Is that him?”

“Go away,” Luc tells him, already thinking about what he wants to text back.

“This has to be a fine. Jonesy!  _ Jonesy!”  _ Cam yells across the ice.

“What?” Seth skates over.

“Luc’s texting his boo while we’re supposed to be  _ practicing,”  _ Cam whines.

“We’re obviously taking a water break,” Luc mutters. He sends  **Rude! We’re over 500** , and then, before he can talk himself out of it, types  **We put in work when it counts** and sends that too.

“Who, the DILF?” Seth asks. “Are you guys dating now?”

“He’s not a DILF,” Luc whines. “And  _ no.” _

“Then I don’t know if it’s technically a fine,” Seth tells Cam. 

“But  _ look at him.  _ He looks like one of those cartoons with hearts for eyes.”

Seth and Cam are still arguing when Luc’s phone buzzes in his hand. His stomach feels light, almost fizzy from anticipation, as he opens Artemi’s text.

**Good to know (Speak-No-Evil Monkey )(See-No-Evil Monkey )**

Luc’s face is definitely doing something strange right now, but he’s so giddy that he doesn’t care. 

“Holy shit, I take it back, that’s definitely a fine,” Seth says. 

Cam makes a triumphant noise as Luc ducks his head and blushes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy you guys are on this journey with me!! This is so much fun to write and I can't wait to start the next chapter. Leave me a comment to let me know what you thought of this one! :)
> 
> (Also, for anyone who is a PreK-5 teacher, this probably requires some suspension of disbelief in terms of the process that would ensue if a child had these language problems, but hopefully you can humor me!)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ana makes progress in school and Artemi makes progress with Luc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tons of dialogue in this chapter, which was surprisingly difficult to write for someone who's used to slapping down dense written blocks of porn. I hope you guys enjoy it! We're getting to the good stuff next chapter, so far this fic is still pure as the driven snow :)

Luc can’t believe how well his plan actually worked.

Only a week after he and Anastasia have the first after-school session, Luc is sitting at a small table during free play and having “tea” with Ana, Ellen, Nia, and Rachel. Ellen had already been close with Nia and Rachel, from what Luc could tell; after Ana started having full conversations (well, as full as conversations between preschoolers can be) with Ellen, she had quickly progressed to talking with the other two girls as well.

“Mr. Luc, is London real?” Rachel asks.

Luc has to stifle laughter multiple times a day, and it’s probably one of his favorite things about this job. “Yes, London is real. Why do you ask?”

“My mommy said, um…” Rachel pauses to think, and the rest of the girls look at her attentively. “She said in London they, um, drink tea every day.”

Nia looks excited by this. “Mr. Luc, can we go there?”

“Aw, I’m sorry, Nia, but London is really far away,” Luc says, accepting a plastic teacup and saucer that Ellen hands him. “I don’t think your parents would be too happy if we went across the ocean.”

“They… they would be fine,” Nia decides slowly, smile getting bigger as she talks.

Luc grins and tries not to laugh again.

“London is across the ocean?” Ellen asks, eyes wide.

“That’s right,” Luc says.

Ana smiles and opens her mouth to join the conversation. “I think I went there.”

The other girls gasp and turn to her. “Really?” Nia asks.

Ana nods, encouraged. “My papa said I was born, um, across the ocean.”

She says “across the ocean” like it’s one word, and at the way the other girls seem enraptured, Luc wonders if they think “across the ocean” is one place.

“You know, there are lots of different countries across the ocean,” Luc tells them. “Do you guys remember that globe we showed you last week?”

Ana and Rachel nod, but Ellen and Nia shake their heads.

“It’s okay if you don’t, we’re going to have another lesson on it next week,” Luc says.

Honestly, half the stuff he and Mrs. Jeffries teach them goes in one ear and out the other, but by the end of the year Luc’s hoping that everything sticks. He gets up for a second to grab a globe from one of the other tables, then sits back down with the girls.

“Do you remember seeing this?” he asks. All four girls nod. “This is called a globe, and it’s basically a really small version of the entire earth. Do you know what country we live in?”

Rachel smiles. “America!”

“That’s right,” Luc says. He points to the America-shaped blob of land. “So this is what America looks like on the map. And all this blue stuff is the ocean.”

“Where’s across the ocean?” Ellen asks, pronouncing it like one word.

“Well, ‘across’ is just a word that describes where something is,” Luc says. “Here’s an example - I’m sitting across from Nia.”

The girls stare at him blankly, looking back and forth between him and Nia.

“So, I’m on the other side of the table from Nia, right?” Luc tries. The girls nod. “So, I would say that I’m across-” he motions between him and Nia- “the table-” he points to the table- “from Nia.”

Ellen seems to understand it, but he’s not sure if any of the other girls do.

“Where is it?” Nia asks, pointing at the globe.

“Well, there are a lot of different countries that are over here,” Luc says, motioning to the Europe, Africa, and Asia-shaped blob. “London is in a country that’s here-” he points to England- “and Ana, your papa told me you were born in Russia, right?”

Ana nods and smiles. “Yes, Russia.”

“That’s over here,” Luc says, pointing to it.

“Wow,” Rachel breathes.

“Mr. Luc, where’s Kenya?” Nia asks. “My bibi and babu’s house is there.”

“Your… grandparents?” Luc ventures. Nia nods. “Kenya’s over here.”

The globe’s continents aren’t divided into countries, but he thinks he gets it roughly correct, a little southwest of the horn.

“And all of those places are considered across the ocean,” Luc says.

The girls still look confused, but that’s alright - preschool-aged children can’t fully understand maps until they’re older, but it’s apparently good to get them used to the concept early.

“Mr. Luc, how big is the earth?” Ellen asks.

Luc smiles. “Really, really big.”

Ana stretches out her arms. “This big?”

The girls burst into laughter and Luc’s smile widens. “Bigger.”

Ana stretches her arms even farther. _“This_ big?”

“Ana, you’re silly,” Luc grins, delighted as the girls continue to laugh and laugh.

“What about you, Mr. Luc?” Nia asks after a moment.

“What about me?”

“Your arms.” She points to him.

“You think I can fit the whole earth in my arms?” Luc asks, spreading them out. His wingspan is huge compared to the girls’, and they titter with laughter as they forget all about their teacups and pepper him with questions.

xxx

This is only Luc’s third after-school session with Ana, and even though he loves her to pieces, he’s not sure how many more of these he’ll actually need to have; she’s doing great.

“How school today?” Artemi asks as he sits down at the table with them.

“It was good, Papa,” Ana says happily. Luc’s brought the legos into the teacher’s lounge today and she seems to be working on building a house. “We’re going to London.”

Artemi raises his eyebrows and glances over at Luc. “London? Like, city?”

His face relaxes into a smile when Luc grins and hides a laugh. “Yeah, we were all having tea today and I discovered that some of the girls want to travel the world. They have all these big plans now.”

“Very fun, Nastya,” Artemi says.

“And Ana had lots of fun today with the other girls,” Luc says. “She was cracking jokes and the rest of them couldn’t stop laughing.”

Artemi cocks his head. “Cracking…?”

“Oh, she - like, she was telling jokes,” Luc says quickly. “Sometimes we say ‘cracking’ jokes because… well, because English is weird.”

“Oh,” Artemi nods, understanding. He murmurs something to Ana in Russian and ruffles her hair, making her giggle before she turns back to her Legos.

“But, yeah. You should be really proud of her,” Luc continues. Artemi _beams_ at him and Luc’s heart feels like it skips a beat. “It really seems like she’s getting more confident every day. And it’s fun, right, Ana? It’s fun to talk with the other girls.”

Ana nods, her little tongue stuck out in concentration as she tries to keep a very tall stack of Legos from falling over.

“Thank you,” Artemi says, fiddling with the sleeve of his jacket. “So much. English is, you know, I can’t help her. I’m happy she get help from you.”

Luc blushes. “I - oh, I’m really not doing anything special, I promise.”

Artemi shakes his head. “You _help._ Best teacher.”

Luc is so overwhelmed he has to stare at the table instead for a second; when he looks back up, Artemi is still as radiant as ever. Luc forces himself to stop stammering and actually accept the compliment, something he has a lot of trouble doing.

“Thank you. I will say, though, I’m glad she’s been able to pick it up easily, because the more I talk to you, the more I realize how much of it makes absolutely no sense.”

Artemi laughs. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s - I, um, I like talking to you,” Luc says, hoping that’s not crossing a line.

He figures it isn’t when Artemi’s cheeks color and he says, “Me too.”

The air feels heavy for a few seconds, like the universe is giving Luc’s brain time to commit all of this to memory. Then Artemi draws in a deep breath, blinks a few times, and says, “You ready to go, Nastya?”

Ana, who hasn’t really paid attention to them for at least a full minute, shakes her head. “My house isn’t done.”

“When house done?” Artemi asks.

“Soon.”

Artemi glances over at Luc and smiles. “How soon?”

“Five minutes,” Ana says after a moment’s consideration.

“We go if you need to go,” Artemi says to Luc.

“No, it’s fine,” Luc says, even though he’s already late for hockey practice. Cam is never going to let him hear the end of it. “I have some time.”

“Okay,” Artemi says. “Five minutes, Nastya, no more.”

Luc shifts a little in his seat, trying not to make it too obvious as he turns toward Artemi. “How was work?”

Artemi smiles. “Good. I’m work with Nolan today. You know, yes?”

“Of course!” Luc smiles. “He’s one of my best friends. How’s his shoulder coming?”

“Good, good,” Artemi says. “Today we work range of motion. Couple weeks, maybe, he can play.”

Luc grins, glad Nolan’s finally going to be able to get back on the ice after tearing his rotator cuff during the playoffs five months ago. “That’s awesome. I know it’s been killing him that he can barely even practice.”

“Yes, he tell me, every time,” says Artemi. “Today he’s happy, you know?”

“Oh, definitely,” Luc says. “I’m sure it’ll be nice not to have to listen to him complain all the time.”

Artemi huffs out a laugh. “No complain today. He show me video today, though.”

“Of what?”

“Fight on ice,” Artemi says, grinning slyly. “Last season, captain fight lots.”

Luc puts his hands over his face. “Oh my god.”

Artemi giggles.

“Why did that even come up?” Luc asks.

“Team chirp him,” Artemi says. “Once he back to skate, he has to fight like last captain.”

Luc rolls his eyes. “It’s not like that’s the captain’s job. Anyone can fight, even though not everyone _should_.”

“He know,” Artemi grins. “But, you know, last captain... good at it.”

Luc finally wrenches his eyes off the table and looks up sheepishly, then almost does a double take when he sees how pink Artemi’s cheeks are. “Yeah, well, I just - you know, guys said-” he almost says _shit,_ then glances over at Ana, who’s still peacefully building her house- “a lot of stuff on the ice, I said stuff back. Sometimes I had to follow through, you know?”

Artemi bites his lip, then it’s his turn to look down at the table with a smile. Luc tries to imagine Artemi watching videos of his hockey fights with that pink flush on his cheeks and has to stop that line of thinking immediately.

“When I’m play, I train boxing in summer,” Artemi says, mimicking a few punches. “I love to fight too, you know? Maybe like UFC on ice.”

He chuckles at his own little joke, but Luc is too busy unpacking everything Artemi’s just said. “Hold up, you used to play hockey? _And_ you’re a UFC fan?” When Artemi smiles at Luc’s enthusiasm, Luc gets a little self-conscious. “Sorry, I feel like I’m interrogating you or something.”

Artemi giggles. “No problem. I, um - yes, I play hockey. Used… to?”

“Like, in the past,” Luc explains. “Like, you played hockey a while ago but you don’t anymore?”

“Yes,” Artemi nods. “My knee - very hurt, bad.” He pats his right knee with an unreadable expression on his face. “I want to play for, um, for career?” Luc nods in understanding. “But no career after knee.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Luc says.

“Thanks,” Artemi says. “It’s okay. If I have career, maybe I not have Nastya, you know?”

Wow, Artemi must have been really good if he was actually headed for a _career_ in hockey. Luc makes a mental note to ask him about that at some point. But not right now. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying.”

Artemi’s mouth quirks up and he glances over at his daughter, still engrossed in her legos; when he looks back at Luc, his eyes are crinkled around the corners. “What’s other question?”

“I…” Luc stares at him stupidly for a second. “Oh, uh, just about UFC.”

“Oh, right,” says Artemi. “Yes, big fan. I watch lot of fights.”

“Me too! None of my friends do, they think I’m, like, crazy for being so into it,” Luc says.

Artemi grins. “You watching on Saturday?”

“Of course,” Luc says. He almost asks if Artemi wants to watch together, but he’s trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism and isn’t sure what the rules are on initiating, like, extracurricular activities with students’ parents. Instead, he says, “I always root for St-Pierre since he’s from the same part of Canada as me.”

“Quebec, yes?” Artemi asks, cocking his head; when Luc nods, Artemi looks interested and opens his mouth to ask another question.

“All done, Papa,” Anastasia announces.

Luc very nearly startles, then immediately feels guilty - he’d almost forgotten she was here. What kind of teacher does that?

“Good job, золотце,” Artemi says, keeping his gaze on Luc a moment longer before turning to his daughter. “Very pretty house.”

xxx

Later that night, Artemi texts Luc a UFC meme; Luc has to all but throw his phone across the room to keep himself from inviting Artemi to watch the matches together on Saturday.

Instead, he texts back, **That’s my backup plan if teaching doesn’t work out lol**

**Teaching already work out )))))** Artemi texts back.

Luc covers his face with his hand for a second. **Stop it you’re making me blush**

**You blush a lot** , Artemi texts back. Then he sends the  (Speak-No-Evil Monkey ) emoji. **This you**

**Um wow way to call me out… I thought we were friends** (Loudly Crying Face ) Luc sends.

**We are! Maybe I bring more zefir for sorry** (Smiling Face With Halo )

Luc smiles at his phone.

“You are the most disgusting person I’ve ever met,” Sonny says, walking into the room with his dinner.

“What? I’m just sitting here minding my own business.”

“Yeah, smiling and looking all happy and shit,” Sonny says. “Right in front of my salad.”

Luc laughs even as he’s typing. “Shut up.”

**Well as long as it’s alright with you I was thinking I could go to the bakery with you guys this Thursday if Ana still wants me to?? That way I could get zefir straight from the source :)**

Thursday is the last day of Ana’s after-school education. Luc has been trying to figure out how to celebrate it - celebrate _her -_ and he can’t help but offer his presence at the bakery.

Yep, that’s definitely his only reason for suggesting this.

The thirty seconds it takes Artemi to respond feel like some of the longest of Luc’s life. Finally, Artemi texts back:

**Of course she still wants! Great idea )))**

Luc smiles a little even though it’s not quite the response he wanted. He… almost asks if _only_ Ana wants that, but he decides not to, considering that he already just invited himself to a place that’s essentially Artemi’s turf.

Before Luc can overthink this any further - or worry about whether or not it’s kosher to even be doing this in the first place - his phone buzzes with a text from Nolan.

**Dude why didn’t u tell me u knew Artemi!! He’s the best**

Luc laughs. **I mean its more like I know his daughter**

**He shows us pics of her all the time! She’s so cute** Nolan texts back.

**Yeah I know :)**

A few seconds later Sonny stops eating and glances over at Luc. “Why did I just get a text from Nolan saying he wants to set you up with his physical therapist?”

Luc slaps a hand over his face. “Oh my god.”

“Hey, be grateful, he might be cute,” Sonny says.

“He’s talking about Artemi.”

Sonny’s eyes go wide. _“Oh._ Seriously?” His phone buzzes and he glances down at it. “I’m sorry, I can’t get over this - the DILF you’ve been pining over for a month also happens to be Nolan’s PT who Nolan is pretty sure has a crush on you?”

“He _said that?”_ Luc yelps.

“Holy shit,” Sonny says. He abandons his dinner and starts furiously typing.

Luc’s whole body is flushing. “Wait, what are you telling him?”

“I’m just saying there’s no need to set you up because you’re already obsessed with him.”

_“No,_ don’t tell him that-”

Luc’s phone buzzes.

**UM EXCUSE ME WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME YOU WERE READY TO BECOME A STEPFATHER AT THE TENDER AGE OF 22**

xxx

Pick-up time is busy the next day and Artemi actually comes on time. This is just as well, because he’s actually wearing a dress shirt today and he looks so good Luc feels like he’s going to combust. Luc gives him a little wave as he and Ana leave; Artemi’s eyes crinkle and he waves back, lingering at the door a little bit before Ana tugs on his hand and they walk out together.

The next day, Wednesday, is Halloween. It’s Luc’s first Halloween as a teacher and he’s put a lot of careful thought into his costume - after all, four-year-olds aren’t really going to understand clever pop culture references, so he goes old-school and dresses up as a vampire, complete with a silk cape and plastic fangs that he has to take out when he talks.

There are a couple superheros in his class, a few Disney princesses, and three kids dressed as pumpkins. Ana’s wearing a penguin costume, complete with shiny yellow boots for the penguin’s feet. The costume’s almost too big for her and it’s so adorable Luc’s heart can barely handle it.

“Are penguins your favorite animal?” Luc asks her during art time.

Ana nods. “They can’t fly!”

“Hey, that’s okay, we can’t either.”

“I saw them once,” Ana says.

Luc raises his eyebrows. “Like - at the zoo?” Ana nods. “Oh, right. Did you get to see them swim?”

“Yes!” Ana sounds so happy. “Papa says they use their feet.”

“That’s right, their feet are like flippers,” Luc says. “That’s why they walk so funny.”

“Yesterday Papa said they eat fish so, um, I should too, ‘cause it’s Halloween.”

Luc laughs. “Oh, but they don’t cook their fish! That wouldn’t be such a good idea. Did he take you to the zoo yesterday, then?”

Ana shakes her head. “He took me to… some fancy place, to eat. Yesterday is his birthday.”

“Yesterday _was_ his birthday,” Luc corrects, before he actually processes what she’s said. “Oh - really?”

He almost asks _why didn’t you tell me,_ but that’s a stupid thing to say to a four-year-old who is under absolutely no obligation to tell her teacher that it was her father’s birthday. It would be better to ask her _father_ why he didn’t say anything.

Which, of course, Luc absolutely does when Artemi comes to pick up Anastasia that afternoon.

“Oh,” Artemi says, pink creeping into his cheeks. “It’s, uh - it’s hard just to say, you know, hello, is birthday.”

Luc snorts. “Okay, that’s fair. Happy birthday, though! Ana says you went out to a nice dinner.”

Artemi smiles. “Yes. We go to Martini - you know?”

“Italian, right? On High Street?” Luc asks. Artemi nods. “Yeah, I love that place. My parents took me there at the end of every hockey season in college.”

“First time for me,” Artemi says. “Fancy for birthday, and best part, fancy kids menu. That’s why I pick.”

Luc’s heart does something strange in his chest. This guy’s still in his 20’s - he just turned 27 - and his idea of a perfect birthday dinner is just a night out with his little girl at a place that he picked because he liked their kids menu. It’s incredibly sweet but something about it makes Luc’s stomach hurt.

“I got chicken with parmish on it,” Ana pipes up while Luc is still having his internal crisis.

“No, Nastya, parmesan is cheese,” Artemi tells her. “Chicken par-me-shan.”

“Chicken with parmesan,” Ana repeats.

“That must have been delicious,” Luc says, finally getting back with the program. “Are you sure you’re going to have room for your Halloween candy?”

Ana gasps. “Mr. Luc, that dinner was _yesterday!_ I have lots of room!”

Luc smiles as Artemi laughs. “We need trick-or-treat first, Nastya.” He looks at his watch. “Time to go soon.”

“Are you gonna wear a costume?” Luc asks Artemi as they get Ana’s stuff together.

“Yes,” Artemi says. “I have big penguin costume, so we… um…”

“So you guys match?” Luc asks. Artemi nods. “Oh my god, can you please send me a picture of you as a six-foot-tall penguin?”

Artemi giggles and ducks his head. “Maybe.”

“I gotta see it,” Luc presses with a smile.

“I send if you wear that,” Artemi says, pointing to the plastic fangs Luc has clutched in his hand.

Luc shrugs and jams the fangs in his mouth, fitting them around his teeth before flashing a smile at the both of them. Ana shrieks with laughter and Artemi grins, pretending to take a picture with a air-camera.

Luc takes the fangs back out. “Have fun trick-or-treating, guys.”

“Thanks, Mr. Luc,” Nastya grins.

Artemi takes Ana’s hand - or, more accurately, her little penguin flipper - and brushes his hair out of his face as he smiles at Luc. “Have good night.”

xxx

Ana is ecstatic the next day when Luc informs her he’s accompanying them to the bakery after school.

“What’s it called?” Luc asks Artemi, pulling out his phone while Ana’s still jumping up and down. “So I can put it into google maps.”

“Sergei’s Sweets,” Artemi says.

“Papa, what if Mr. Luc gets there first?” Ana asks.

Artemi smiles. “It’s okay, золотце. He wait for us.”

“Maybe not,” Luc teases as he started to walk toward his car. “You better get there fast, Ana, or else I’m gonna eat everything there!”

Ana shrieks with laughter. “Nooo! Go, Papa, go!”

“See you there,” Artemi laughs as Ana hurries toward their car.

Luc does, in fact, get to the bakery first, probably because he doesn’t have to secure a very riled-up four-year-old into a carseat before starting his journey. He finds a parking spot on the street close to the bakery and wanders in after paying for an hours’ worth of parking, figuring there’s no way they’ll be there longer than that.

When Luc walks inside, a little bell rings where it’s positioned over the door; his senses are immediately overwhelmed by the smell of honey and coffee, making his mouth water.

There are a handful of customers already inside, seated at small tables and sipping on tea or espresso while they munch on pastries. It’s a pretty small place and there isn’t _that_ much seating, but luckily a few tables are still free. The light pink walls are lined with photographs, mostly landscapes and nature scenes with some pictures of Russian architecture sprinkled in.

Luc sees only one person behind the counter, a slim brunette woman in her late twenties or early thirties readjusting a few of the pastries in one of the glass display cases. Once she sees Luc she immediately wipes her hands off on her apron and moves down the counter to greet him.

“Hello, welcome to Sergei’s Sweets!” she says, thick Russian accent shaping her words. “What can I get for you today?”

“Oh, uh - I probably need a minute to look, it’s my first time here,” Luc says.

“Oh, first time?” the woman smiles. “Yes, I give you time to look at everything. Any questions, please ask me. My name is Olga.”

“Yeah, definitely. Thanks,” Luc says. Then, belatedly, “Uh, my name is Luc.”

Olga had started to turn back to the pastry counter, but she raises an eyebrow when Luc tells her his name. She doesn’t say anything to him, though, just yells something in Russian back toward a pair of doors that Luc assumes lead to the kitchen.

Just as a tall man wearing a hairnet over a mop of sandy hair pokes his head out of the kitchen, the bell above the front door rings again. Luc turns around and smiles when he sees Artemi and Anastasia.

He soon realizes he’s not the only one in the bakery who’s happy to see them.

Well, at least, he _assumes_ Olga and the man in the hairnet are happy to see them. He can’t understand a single thing they’re saying save for what they call Ana - “Nastya,” same as Artemi. From the smiles on their faces, though - and the smirk on Olga’s - Luc figures it’s safe to assume.

“Nastya, go pick table,” Artemi says, finally in English for Luc’s benefit. “You want медовик?”

Ana nods frantically and zips off toward one of the open tables as the man with the hairnet disappears back into the kitchen.

“What’s she getting?” Artemi asks Luc.

“Медовик,” Artemi says again. “It’s like - uh-”

“Honey cake,” Olga supplies, pointing to a pale-colored cake with at least eight layers. There are already several slices missing.

“We split it,” Artemi explains as Olga cuts a slice from the large cake. “That way, dinner not ruin.”

Luc smiles. “That makes sense. Do you have any, uh, recommendations for what I should get?”

Olga cuts in before Artemi can respond. “You want try медовик?”

“Oh, uh - yeah, that’d be great, if that’s okay,” Luc says.

Olga spears a small forkful of the piece she’d already cut for Artemi and holds it out over the counter.

“Hey!” Artemi protests, even as he takes the fork.

“Share is good, Tyoma,” Olga says with a smirk.

Artemi sighs, clearly trying not to laugh as he carefully hands Luc the bite of cake. Some embarrassing part of Luc wants to lean down and eat it without touching the fork, to let Artemi feed him, but he quickly suppresses the urge and brings the fork to his own mouth like the grown man he is.

“Oh, wow, this is really good,” he says, making a little appreciative noise after he’s licked the fork clean.

Artemi flushes and looks away; Olga’s smirk deepens. “Good enough for whole slice?”

“Definitely.”

Once the three of them are settled at Ana’s table with their plates of cake, Olga disappears into the kitchen.

“Did you know her before you moved here?” Luc asks Artemi as Ana digs into her cake.

“No,” Artemi shakes his head, “only for few months. But she and Sergei, uh, the man you see-”

“The guy in the kitchen?” Luc asks. “I’m guessing this is his bakery, just from the name.”

“Yes, he and Olga, they own,” Artemi says. “I meet them in August, and we’re friends fast.”

“That’s awesome. How’d you find this place originally?”

Artemi’s mouth quirks up. “I get recommend from friend in yoga class. _She_ was first Columbus friend, then her husband, then Olga and Sergei.”

“And Sasha!” Ana pipes up.

Artemi nods. “And Sasha, yes.” He turns to Luc. “Yana - from yoga - and Vladimir, they have son - how old, Nastya?”

“Ummm,” Ana hesitates. “I don’t know, Papa. He’s younger than me.”

“Oh, well that must be nice,” Luc says kindly. “Do you get to see him a lot?”

Ana nods excitedly. “Every weekend.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Yes, every weekend, we switch babysitting,” Artemi says.

Luc laughs. “That’s so clutch.”

“Yes, and tomorrow is Yana and Vova’s turn,” Olga says, appearing out of nowhere to bring them extra napkins and glasses of water. She winks at Luc. “Tyoma free all night.”

Luc blushes fiercely and Artemi hisses something at Olga that makes her throw her head back with laughter.

“Ms. Yana said we’re making pizzas tomorrow night!” Ana tells Luc excitedly, saving him and Artemi from any more of Olga’s teasing.

“Oh, I bet that’s going to be so much fun,” Luc says. “What are you going to put on yours?”

Artemi beams at Luc from across the table as Ana slowly lists off about a dozen toppings, most of which Luc highly doubts any reasonable adult would let her actually put on a pizza. Luc grins back, helpless under the force of Artemi’s clear happiness, and feels his smile grow even as he turns back to Ana under the guise of paying more attention to what she’s saying.

Fifteen minutes later, all of them have finished with their cake. Ana shifts in her chair and asks her father something in Russian; Artemi nods and makes to get out of his chair, asking, “You need help?”

Ana shakes her head vigorously. “Papa, no! I can do it myself.”

She climbs down from her chair and toddles over to the door to what must be the restroom, which Olga opens for her with a bemused smile.

God, Ana is so _cute._ When Luc turns back to Artemi he expects to see the other man smiling, but he suddenly looks _nervous,_ of all things. His eyes, big and blue, are wide, and he’s worrying his full bottom lip between his teeth. It’s unfairly attractive; Luc would ask him what’s wrong, but he’s not sure if he’s reading his expression right.

Instead, he says, “Hey, did you get anything nice for your birthday?”

Artemi’s expression shifts to relief, for some reason. “Yes - Nastya make card, and Yana help her paint bowl for me.”

“Oh, at one of those ceramics places downtown?” Luc asks. Artemi nods. “Aw, that’s sweet of her.”

He considers what he would have done for gifts for his mom or dad as a child if he didn’t have the heavy guidance of his dad or mom, respectively; Ana is a pretty special little kid.

“And friends from work, they buy for me, um - tickets for Blue Jackets,” Artemi continues slowly.

“Cool! When’s the game?”

Artemi laughs quietly. “Tomorrow.”

“Oh, geez, that’s like three days’ notice,” Luc snorts. “Did they get a ticket for Ana too?”

“They, um, they get two tickets,” Artemi says, “but game is late, you know, and she say she making _pizza_ tomorrow, Papa, no time for hockey.”

Luc bursts out laughing. “I guess she’s seen enough games through your job that she’s kind of over it, maybe?”

“Maybe,” Artemi chuckles. “But, I, um. I want to ask - what you’re doing tomorrow?”

Oh. _Oh._

This… is too good to be true, there’s no way Luc is interpreting this right. He chances a glance over to the counter and finds Olga already staring back at him, chin resting on her hands as she shamelessly watches the both of them like they’re a soap opera.

Huh. Maybe he _is_ interpreting this right.

“I’m free tomorrow after work,” Luc says, trying to keep his voice neutral.

“Okay, good, because - I’m wondering, you want to go with me, to game?” Artemi asks carefully. So carefully it's almost like... it was rehearsed, maybe.

Luc glances over at Olga again for a split second and she winks at him. The man in the hairnet - Sergei - has poked his head out of the kitchen again, watching the pair of them. It’s confirmation enough that Luc feels his face split into a grin; in response, Artemi's face goes through a range of expressions so pure it feels like Luc is staring at the sun.

“Yeah, I would love to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEYRE GOIN ON A DATE
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comments or on [tumblr](http://povverbottoms.tumblr.com) :)


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